Jermain Taylor defeats Bernard Hopkins by decision

Taylor edges Hopkins!

By Mike Sloan and Victor Perea at ringside

It was hardly scintillating, but Jermain Taylor (25-0, 17 KOs) won a twelve round unanimous decision over Bernard Hopkins (46-4-1, 32 KOs) to retain his WBC/WBA/WBO middleweight world championship Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. A lot of posing early on, but Taylor seemed slightly better. As the fight progressed, Taylor became more and more in control. Like their first fight, the tide began to turn around round seven Hopkins as began to have more success by pressing the action more. The action picked up in round eleven as both traded hard shots with Taylor getting the better of it. Both fighters had their moments in the twelfth. All three judges scored it 115-113 for Taylor.
Sunday, December 4 2005

Weak sauce fight. It's sad to see Hopkins lose his title and the rematch without ever having been hurt or put in serious trouble by Taylor. Hopkins wasn't busy enough early and it cost him, again. I was hoping for a BH knockout, but Taylor earned this one. Close fight, but I agreed that Hopkins had done too little too late, just as he did in July.

Hopkins actually managed to hurt Taylor in I think it was round 10 or 11. He hit him with a good left hook.

I think the first fight was a draw, and the second fight wasn't much of a championship fight. Taylor did not impress me and he needed to impress me since he is supposedly the best up and coming Middleweight.

I think Winky would pick apart Taylor and I would love to see them fight ;P Too bad no one wants Winky :P